Financial Aid for Casinos

Financial aid for casinos in New Orleans? The below email was copied me by a friend. I tend to agree with it. However, casinos are businesses too, and they weren't spared the wrath of Katrina. What do you think?

Please forward this to Representative Lewis:

Dear Mr. Lewis: I petition you to join with Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia in opposing the half-billion dollar tax credit for the casinos on the Gulf Coast included in the GO Zone legislation. Government has avoided giving tax aid to the gambling industry in the past, and they should continue to do so. This is a misuse of tax money, especially in light of the fact that the casinos didn’t even ask for it!

Please support legislation that will put the money toward reconstructing the infrastructure, not toward a group of financially robust giants whose industry is known to increase crime rates and poverty within any society in which it is introduced. If indeed this is true, and there are many studies that show it is, then casinos actually exacerbated the problems caused by Katrina because many of those who did not leave the region didn’t do so because of financial woes probably indirectly or directly caused by casino industry.

This is an important issue for me and my family. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.